The Galactic Alliance
The Galactic Alliance, also known as the Republic, is the largest known existing government in the universe, in the modified Star Wars/sci-fi setting, to which material is hosted on this wiki. Many refer to the Galactic Alliance, as "the Republic" because otherwise it's fairly easy to mix up with "The Free-trade Alliance". While the Free trade alliance is actually also, a republic, the original name of the Galactic Alliance was "the Galactic Republic". The official full name today, is: "The republic of the Galactic Alliance". The strict off-game reason for this namechange/mix up, is because most Star Wars source material revolves around the Republic, but we desired a lot of costumization when we made this, seeing as this version of the Republic has it's own history and origins. History The Republic was created, when the Alamari race rose to space-travel era. They settled on several inhabitable globes in their own system, and created a Galactic Republic to govern their systems. When they expanded outside their own system after many generations, they encountered other species eventually, who had less democratic governments. An alliance was forged between many factions, while war was fought on many fronts, but the Galactic Alliance, as the alliance was called, grew much stronger through these wars, and eventually turned into a republic, as all political decisions were suddenly made on a galactic level anyway. The losers of the wars known as "The First Galactic Wars" (war campaigns lasting over 300 years) were quite simply forced to join. The most important factor in the creation of the Galactic Alliance was the reaper threat. The republic of the Galactic Alliance expanded vastly to engulf most of known space. During the reaper threat, the Jedi Order underwent a reformation in both structure, purpose and religion. They had always played an important part in Alamari politics, but for reasons unknown to most historians, the order underwent a full reformation (which didn't occur entirely peacefully), one might add. The jedi order stepped up and played a vital role during the first galactic wars, though very selective about what battles they would enter, they were reknown for their combat prowess, and anywhere they joined in the efforts, a republic flag would soon be planted in the soil. They became such a vital part of military operations, that any such were rarely attempted without Jedi support during those days, which meant that the Jedi Order had a significant amount of political power, even that early in the Galactic Era. The Jedi recruited members from all the species that joined the Alliance, building a strong network between all members of the alliance, officially turning into a multi-factional organization with a semi-democratic self-government, and it was as much thier doing, that the Alliance would later become a mostly peaceful inter-species republic. A facist movement within the original Alamari Republic, that had rebelled against the new unions spread through out many of the races. The Sith movement. Infact, this movement began inside the Jedi Order, as many Jedi believed strongly against the Jedi changing. The original "Order of the Sith" which was a splinter group of the Jedi Order who had radical believes, was forced into exile after a short war between the two orders. Their message had taken root in the population of the Alamari however, but the mindset of the Alamari has changed much since those days, and the Alamari have grown quite fond of humans specifically and have come to tollerate most humanoid species. Large groups within the all the humanoid species had an easy time agreeing that they were superior to the non-human species however, which lead to the eventual creation of the Sith Empire, which remains a large splinter faction of mostly mid-to outer rim worlds. The Sith Movement spread like a wild-fire primarily during the Creep Wars, which was a war that took place in the outer-rim worlds, when an insectoid species was discovered, that was capable of space-travel. The insectoids were impossible to conduct diplomacy with, and almost managed to kill an entire systems worth of Alliance citizens. After that, the hatred towards non-humanoid species grew intensely and the Sith Movement gained popularity. There had always been factions that refused to join the Alliance, accepting that the Alliance claimed monopoly on space expansion, which limited them to their own systems or even planets. These factions already had strong ties between them, trading with each other, sharing know-how and such. Some even had military alliances. When the Sith broke of from the Alliance, a few systems that were only reluctantly members of the Alliance banded together to form a military and trade alliance, called "The Free-trade Alliance ". However, they would soon realize that this didn't in anyway profit them, as the Galactic Alliance remained the superior military might in the galaxy. They had originally hoped to ally with the Sith, but the Sith soon became an empire and a magocracy at that. The Free-trade alliance recognized that the Jedi order meddled a lot in politics, which most of them held as primary reasons for leaving, and they took a complete no-tollerance stand against psy-users. Structure The Capital Planet of Coruscant, holds the Senate, the senate has representants from every faction within the galactic alliance. These factions vary in nature, some are nations, other are solitary planets or systems with mixed population, while otheres yet again are racial factions, representing all of their race, if there is any purpose to that. Within the senate, there are a number of factions that hold VETO rights, because they provide such a large amount of the Galactic Alliance resources, that they can openly demand or object to things. Due to these factions, the council was created. The council is a small mini-senate, within the senate, that is still subject to the Supreme chancellor (the elected leader of the Galactic Alliance), and their purpose is, that whenever a VETO faction decides to lay down VETO, they will all vote for, or against, as they all have equal VETO rights. VETO factions enjoy the benefits of many allies within the senate, and these alliances are usually costly for the lesser parts (non-favourable trade agreements), but the VETO faction pays it's dues by supporting their allies. The Jedi Order has a seat in the council, but have vowed to never directly interfere in politics. Life in the Galactic Alliance Children growing up in the Galactic Alliance go to school from age 4, but naturally the earliest stages of school are more focussed on personal development, however the pace is quickly picked up, and children leave the mandatory school system at age 16 with the equivalent of a bachelors degree. From that point on, the child will enter mandatory conscription lasting two years, if the child remains a resident of a settlement within the galactic alliance, but some become spacers (they don't have a residence) right after school however and make a living that way. Conscription teaches a lot of military skills, but actually also teaches the conscript how to any job that would normally be in the low-pay end of public sector jobs, such as bus drivers, receptionists, garbage men, secretaries, security guards ect, but also many other jobs in the public sector. 'Getting an education' Not much work is available with only a bachelors degree in the Galactic Alliance, and education beyond this point is not free in the Galactic Alliance, neither is a place to live or food. However, the Galactic Alliance has a smart and well functioning system that handles that, after two years of mandatory conscription, a citizen can apply to become a member of the Military Reserve, which gives the citizen a place to live (typically a small two room apartment with kitchen or bathroom, slightly larger apartments for couples), a steady and fair income, a uniformed job in the public sector on hours that are flexible towards allowing the citizen more than enough time to study and do homework as well and completely eliminates the need to pay for his/her education, the only other requirement being that the citizen participates in military training and drills in what would normally be his/her spare time. Almost all public sector jobs are actually filled by reserve military personel, meaning that most administrative leaders and middlemanagement are also students and reserve military, and doing their jobs in the public sector is considered military duty. NOTE: Not all people working in the public sector are students, but all are military reserve. Some take more working hours, quitting school entirely and make a decent living on the pay from that job. Apart from enlisting to become full-time military personel, a citizen can generally apply to two different schools. University is the direct continuation of the education they already recieved, prior to conscription. It's uncommon to take a second bachelor, but many people take a Candidate or a Ph. D. (being far more common in a society where people have a bachelor and the option to keep studying due to no lack of funds at age 18), but some keep studying for many years acheiving many degrees before they finally decide to leave the educational system. College 'is where citizens apply when they want to finalize their education. Not even a Ph. D. in chemistry can be used for anything stand alone. Usually, it takes only about a year or two to finalize any level of education and several choices are available. A student with a bachelor in Law might become a police officer or a paralegal, while a student with a Candidate in law might become a judge or a lawyer, depending on how many years the student wants to spend in college after taking his/her degree. People with a bachelor degree can typically only get jobs as artisans or jobs similar to those in the public sector (albeit slightly higher level of competence required, such as a police officer over a security guard). After going through college, most citizens quit the military reserve and start working full time in their new chosen field, typically private sector (though paramedics, being equivalent of both real life paramedics and a nurse in the galactic alliance, and police officers obviously work public sector). 'Working in the public sector Most jobs in the public sector are handled by Reserve Military. They perform these jobs, in uniform, and adhering to the military chain of command. This doesn't mean that busdrivers are driving around with a rifle slung over their back in full combat gear. The uniforms they wear typically consist of cargo pants, boots or shoes designed for their specific duty (a bus driver might wear shoes, while a garbage man probably prefers tall security boots with a good grip), and usually a stun-gun and a paton for self-defence, as well as a pair of handcuffs, and an encrypted comlink, and those that work in environments where they are shielded from the public do not carry any weapons. Only in war-times or in times where there might be a risk do they carry lethal weaponry and light combat suits when out and about on the job. All reserve military have full training as security guards, and a security guard is much more similar to a patrol police officer today. They are trained in making arrests and are authorized to do so, and actual police officers are mostly detectives or Emergency Response Units (ERU, equivalent of SWAT). In order to become middle management or administrative leaders in the public sector, one must recieve the propper leadership courses from the Military Reserve, which is actually NCO and officer training. 'Military' All military forces may universally be referred to as soldiers. Land forces are known as troopers, air forces as flyers, anything asociated with a navy are regarded as sailors and there's the subcategory of navy attack forces called marines. 'Conscription' A conscript will recieve a lot of basic training which is similar no matter where the conscript lives. This includes (but is not limited to): Learning how to pilot most land-, sea-, air- and space vehicles, learning basic logisitcs, how to man a reception, the basics of how to use most computer systems, how to properly answer a phone when representing someone not yourself, military bureaucracy, self defence, advanced first aid, sports (with focus on swimming, climbing, running, obstacle courses and zero G movement), properly handling weapons, how to be a security guard (more akin to patrol officers in modern day police departments than modern day security guards), basic infantry training, basic leadership training (in case of field promotions), a basic survival course (in most known environments, including space) and an introduction to public synthetic servants (droids/robots working for the government). The conscription period lasts two years, and takes place in a military academy (usually these are found in specific locations around the Galactic Alliance). 'The Military Reserve' The military reserve is the primary line of defence for every planet, but also what keeps the entire infrastructure running smoothly. It consists of a reserve army (usually the biggest part of the localized military reserve), a reserve air-force (some "urbanized" planets - meaning the entire planet is covered in several layers of city - don't have an army, they simply have an airforce with a ground division instead, seeing as reaching the ground levels is pretty difficult), a reserve navy and a reserve space navy. It should be noted, that exceptionally few members of the galactic alliance have "non reserve" armies, air-forces or navies. Space navies are widely considered as the only "non-reserve" forces needed in a space travel era where many factions spread over several planets or even systems. Members of the reserve have 1 full days worth of practice every week, where they have 2 hours (minimum) of work out, typically obstacle course, zero-g movement, swimming in uniform or something else military related. They have some shooting practice (typically two hours), som self-defence practice (usually straight after the two hours of training, it lasts about 1 hour and is usually done in the same environment as the training was, meaning if it was swimming then it's self-defence in the water), at least 15 minutes of first aid repitition, some lectures and so on. The focus is on maintaining basic soldiering skills. There's usually also a few hours worth of virtual reality simulations and so on. Members also have 1 weekend a month where they arrive on the base friday, get briefed about the upcoming drill, get their equipment ready and practice for the drill most of that friday, then saturday early morning, the drill begins and ends sunday around midday, and then they spend the rest of sunday debriefing, evaluating and maintaining equipment, as well as cleaning up after the drill. Naturally, everyone in a district will not have their drill the same weekend, it's spread out across all 4 weekends a month. Army reserve privates are ranked Constables, Air-force Reserve privates are Ranked Flyer Constables, Navy Reserve privates are ranked Navy Sailors (Usually just called Sailors), and Space Navy reserve rank can be found below in the enlisted section, as it mirrors their enlisted counterparts. 'Elite Forces' Elite forces are coneventional soldiers who have mastered one or more elite disciplines. To master an elite discipline, one must master specific courses, i. e.; to master Sniping, one must pass the sniping course. The various courses are taught at Commando Unit training facilities, by the same isntructors who teach the commando units the same elite disciplines. Elite forces are needed in the ordinary military structure, but there is usually an abundance of them, with plenty of soldiers not serving functions that requires elite status having such. 'Scout and marksmanship' The Scout and Marksmanship couse is usually called "sniping" and is an elite discipline, and is taught in Army Ranger School by Army Ranger instructors. Snipers appear in most infantry forces, working as forward scouts and dedicated marksmen, but are also found aboard carrier ships and sea-vessels. Sniping is a popular elite discipline, but considering that it is about more than simply marksmanship, many applicants fail the courses. 'Escorting' Escort and protection, also known as "body guarding" is an elite discipline, taught in Army Ranger School by Army Ranger instructors. Hardly anyone who isn't a ranger ever applies to take the body guarding courses, due to them being both long and boring, but those that do usually use them to get into the body guard business outside the military. The various Army Rangers Batallions supply quite a few platoons of escort units. Escorting is not only about VIP protection, but includes escorting convoys as well. 'Tactical combat- swimming and diving' Abbrivated TCSD and an elite discipline. Because diving and swimming are both common sparetime activities, a lot of military employees voultunteer for divers training out of interest. Every ship crew is bound to have at least some navy sailors with diving training. All sailors are required to have training as swimmers, and amongst the navy sailors, TCSD is considered one of the most elite disciplines. A lot of infantry forces take it up as well, how ever, because of the practical applications when it comes to swimming. It's taught in Navy Marine School by Navy Marines. This same course also teaches deployment from sea-vessels, as well as tactical usage of smaller watercrafts. 'Advanced Airborne crew course' The Airborne crew course is a course that is considered so essential that all airforce personnel who are trained to work out of flying vehicles must have it. Part of the couse is the CSAR course, which is taught to everyone in all branches of the military in their basic training. The crew course itself, teaches crew onboard various vehicles (depending on what vehicle they serve onboard as crew) how to be effective and safe during combat situations. How to eject safely, how to behave during complex maneuvers, how to perform first aid, during a air combat, basics on how to fly and land said vehicle in case of pilot death/incapacitation, how to extract forces from hot landing zones, how to utilzie weapons on board effectively and so on. This course is not an elite course how ever. This course teaches parachuting, usage of repulsory lifts and jetpacks as standard, and is quite popular for that reason. The Advanced course is an elite course, and the main difference is that the advanced course teaches the reverse CSAR scenario. How to rescue someone behind enemy lines. It teaches shooting with regular issued weapons from a moving air vehicle as well as various complicated extraction methods as well as deployment methods. Both courses are taught by airborne instructors, but the standard course is taugth where ever it is needed, while the Advanced course is taught in airborne school. 'Zero-G' The Zero G course is popular among enlisted soldiers, especially maintainence and engineers. The Zero G course is not the only course that teaches movement ect. in zero g environment, but it is the only one that teaches combat in such conditions. It's taught by Space Ranger instructors at Space Ranger school. 'Commando units' Commando units are fighting forces with an extra ounce of competence. Most types of commando units exist only in the Reserve Military (with the exception of a few Galactic Alliance Factions that have need of enlisted variants), and these commando units are considered to be on par with enlisted military forces, but drastically more specialized. They key to commando units is specialization. Commando units have to take all the elite courses. 'The Army Rangers' The Army Rangers are the army commando units. They function as forward recon teams and quick deployment. The rangers are some of the most respected commando units, not because their training or level of effectiveness differs from the other units, but because their jobs hold very little fun compared to other units, and it typically involves a lot of hard work, even by elite standard. The lowest rank of the army rangers is the Army Ranger-Constable first class. 'The Navy Marines' The Navy Marines are the Navy commando units. They function as swift and aggressive attack forces from the sea, but these days they aren't limited to deploying from boats or docked ships, but rather use transport air-crafts. Marines focus on attacking and clearing out compounds, cities and large rural areas and locking them down, and they are very effective at that. Usually only staying in operation for a few days part of their job once they've locked something down is to prepare it for army forces (serving a more occupational role) taking over. The lowest rank in the Navy Marines is the Navy Marine-Constable first class. 'The Airborne' The Airborne are the Air-force commando units. They are stealth units and often used as re-inforcements. The airborne are capable of being inserted into any situation and can be dropped in the dead of night to carry out swift attacks or simply observe, or even to carry out sabotage. By far the most versitile of the elite forces, sadly this means they aren't truly specialized in anything, how ever they have the shortest response time and are typically the most used elite force. The lowest rank in the Air-force Airborne is the Airforce Airborne-Constable first class. 'Orbital Drop-troopers' Orbital Drop-troopers are the space navy version of airborne commandos, they are part of the Space Navy Space Marines, trained to shoot from orbit, typically in specialized vehicles, drop-pods, massive power armors or any other way possible. In low gravity environments, they can sometimes make due with jetpacks or even gliders. 'Space Rangers' Space Rangers are the space navy variant of ranger commandos, and they are also part of the space navy space marines, trained as marine recon forces. Their purpose doesn't vary much from that of army rangers, but they are trained to operate effectively in environments outside of orbit, in low or zero gravity, with or without atmosphere and in uninhabitable cold or heat. 'Special Forces' Special forces differ from commando units in the sense that they have to be able to do the jobs of any commando unit as well as the commando units can do them, but typically under much harsher conditions, often with a much more complicated mission objective. Often, stealth and discretion is the general theme of special forces operation, that and extreme risks. Special forces never rank lower than Sergeant (requiring middlemanagement leadership courses), any positions of even remote leadership are held by officers. Reserve variants of special forces exist, but they aren't trained in the ways of enlisted commando units, how ever they do maintain a level of professionalism not found in any other reserve units. Reserve special forces do not maintain any jobs, their training is their job, and most find that they can barely manage their studies, typically prolonging their study times. Reserve special forces typically study to become police officers or want to enlist, and their transition time into enlisted forces is dismissively short. Reserve special forces who enlist can always apply for the administrative leadership course and will be automatically admitted, despite not meeting the educational demands. 'Enlisted' The enlisted typically only exist in the Space Navies. To enlist in the galactic alliance space navy, you need to have at least a bachelor and to have completed the 2 year conscription period, or have previous miliary experience from elsewhere (in which case you need to pass en exam, and the initial training period will be longer). Depending on how long ago it was that that the enlistee last had active military duty and depending on the enlistee's military record, he or her will be put in one of the different introductionary courses (varying length and content). Someone who enlists directly from the reserve space navy will naturally have a quicker transition than someone who completed the conscription phase several years ago and never served in the military reserve. The Space Navy holds the actual Space Navy, but also the sub-division of Space Marines, who unlike their reserve military counter part are not considered commandos. The Space Navy itself holds all administrative officers, all the spacers and most of the specialists. The Space marines hold mostly Constables, who are essentially combat troopers trained for conquest and occupation. Enlisted forces are considered on par with reserve commando units, meaning they have quite a standard to maintain. They may not actually have commando training, but their respective jobs are much more demanding when they have to live up to the standards of enlisted military. Constables and spacers need no further education than a bachelor when they join. They both fall under the category called privates and can advance to Constable first class (aka 1st constable) and Spacer first class (aka first spacer) respectively, and even further to Lance Corporals. They pay varies very little from rank to rank, and few who enlist as Constables or Spacers remain in the military for more than a few years. Specialists exist in both the Space Marines and the Space Navy. They have a bachelor and a college finalization, typically they are technicians or artisans by trade and serve as such in the military as well. In the Marines, the Specialists make up the support units (communications, logistics, maintainence, health and fitness, catering ect.). The Space Navies are almost entirely made up of specialists, who serve as technicians and artisans onboard, making sure the spacecrafts can run and operate. Only the gunners and security personel onboard a vessel are actually Spacers. Specialists may be promoted to Specialist First Class and to Master Specialist (which is the equivalent of Lance Corporal). Specialists do not outrank Constables and Spacers, but recieve better pay because of their higher education demands. Both specialists and constables/spacers may be promoted to corporals, but only about 1/10 is selected for such a promotion, and it's typically veteran servicemen who already attained either master specialist or lance corporal rank. 'Advancing in rank' To be allowed to advance in rank as an enlisted, one must have the appropriate leaderhip courses required to do so, and those can only be achieved through the military reserve. Anyone who is in the reserve military and in the process of finalizing a candidate via college will automatically be drafted into middlemanagement leadership courses which replaces the public sector job the student would have carried out. The course lasts less than a year and at it's end, the student will be promoted to junior officer (A junior officer is equivalent of an NCO/non-commisioned officer in many real life armed forces)of the reserve army, of the lowest rank. After this, he returns to the public sector, but now as middlemanagement (if there is a job opening that is, and even then he will be qued according to how well he did on the leadership course, but typically, there are openings to be found in middlemanagement). Anyone who starts finalizing a Ph.D via college will automatically be drafted into administrative leadership courses, which means they first have to take the middle-management courses and then proceed to the administrative leader courses which is essentially continued from middle-management. Even with these courses, one has to enlist as a constable/spacer or specialist at first, and after a year (not counting training) one can apply to the Military Academy's Junior Officer program (middle-management leadership course from military reserve required, unless rank of corporal is attained and an exam can be passed). If accepted the private is promoted to Cadet, and leaves as either A Junior Officer or as a Warrant Officer (both lowest rank). Upon serving as such for at least a year, one can apply again for the Administrative Officer program (requires administrative leadership course from military reserve - Warrant Officer's are rarely accepted into this program), demoted to Cadets for the duration of their time spent on the academy, they leave as officers of the lowest rank. 'Rank Classes' There are five different rank-classes, with different purposes. 'Privates' Private (abbrivated PVT) is not a rank, it's a category of personel which includes constables of all kinds, spacers and specialists. Even those that hold rank as lance corporal, master specialist or corporal fall into the private class. Privates hold very little personal responsibility but serve specific functions. They make up the bunlk of the armed forces. 'Junior Officers' Above the private class, are the Junior Officers (abbrivated JO's). Junior officers are middle-management leaders and can always be referred to as sergeant, despite their actual rank within the junior officer class. Junior Officers are put in charge of units usually not consisting of specialists (though often there will be one or two in said units, for practical purposes), and only former Constables or Spacers may become junior officers. Junior Officers recieve somewhat better pay than privates, varying from rank to rank. 'Warrant officers' Warrant officers (abbrivated WO's) of the lower ranks are equivalent of junior officers and treated as such by the privates, but in the top of the warrant officer class, there are a few ranks equivalent of officer ranks. For the most part, Warrant Officers may be referred to as Sergeant, the three officer ranks in the class are; Lieutenant, Commander and Captain (captain very rarely being in use, but lieutenants and commanders being common enough), and they can be recognized by their uniforms. Warrant officers, are put in charge of units usually consisting only of specialists (sometimes with a few constables or spacers under their command for pure security reasons as specialists are rarely as capable fighters and will typically be lighter armed due to their more practical jobs), and only former specialists may bcome warrant officers, with the exception of pilots, who are always considered Lieutenants or Commanders of the Warrant officer class (note that pilots are not the only Warrant officers to hold those ranks) without needing any leadership courses, however they will always recieve mentioned leadership courses after completing their pilot training, but will not be treated as officers or even junior officers in their daily routines (unlike the warrant officers holding same ranks who aren't pilots), but do infact have the authority their ranks command. Warrant Officers recieve better pay than junior officers, but not by much. The highest ranks in the warrant officer class are paid slightly less than officers of equivalent rank, and pilots are paid considerably less than that, but still more than anyone else in the warrant officer class. The highest ranking warrant officers command large units consisting primarily of specialists, with several lower ranking warrant officers and junior officers under them to handle their respective sides of the middlemanagement. 'Commanding Officers' Commanding Officers (abbrivated CO's and usually just called officers) are administrative leaders, calling the shots, hiring and firing, promoting and evaluating. Officers are in charge of large units, the lower ranks still active in the field, while the higher ranks are solely administrative. Officers recieve much higher pay than anyone else in the military. Officers of lower rank are usually in charge of units consisting primarily of constables, usually with a few low ranking warrant officers and junior officers working under them, while the officers that outrank the highest ranking warrant officers are usually in charge of larger space vessles and all personel onboard and so forth. Military police The last and often forgotten category are the Military Police who fall outside the chain of command and serve no other purpose than to police the military. They aren't part of neither the space navies, or the military reserve, but stand as seperate military institution. All members of the Military Police are considered junior officers by any private, and outrank any other junior officers, but should never be addressed or paid attention unless there is an issue at hand that requires it. When it comes to the officers in the military police, they are also considered junior officers, purely practically, but they do not outrank anyone they technically shouldn't nor do anyone who shouldn't outrank them. The privates in the Military Police are ranked as Constable the next rank being Sergeant (Sergeants in the military police are not just considered junior officers, it's actually their function) and there are no other private or junior officer ranks. Officers are ranked normally according to Army standard. To become employed in the military police, one must first complete police training in college, and then serve as an enlistee for a year (not counting the training period), and as long as the right leadership courses were achieved, one may advance to the rank of Sergeant through experience and veterancy, but to become an officer, one must actually have at least a candidate in law and also have an education as a lawyer.